1. Halo 3 playable?
2. Final Fantasy XI beta in X360OM February issue
3. Bioware/Pandemic stock float?
4. You can't stop Massive in-game advertising
5. Xbox bosses pro(de)moted?
6. Oh no he di'n't! ("HD Era"/"Tru HD" smack talk)

NEWS:

1. Halo 3 playable?

Bungie's weekly update talks about a recent in-house "Bungie Fair", where staffers shared what they're working on with co-workers "from our next project". Oh, and "even some gameplay tests, demos and experiments, are surprisingly polished and playable." UI references that "It's amazing what you can do with higher resolutions and lots more power" really seem to nod to Halo 3 on Xbox 360.

This shouldn't be surprising; Halo 3 should be pretty far along (given the Halo 2 delays and the fact THE FIRST PART OF HALO 3 SHOULD BE THE REST OF HALO 2!).

2. Final Fantasy XI beta in X360OM February issue

UPDATE: The FINAL FANTASY XI beta disc will be in the February 2006 issue, hitting newsstands January 17, 2006.

An upcoming issue of Xbox 360: The Official Xbox Magazine will have the Final Fantasy XI Xbox 360 beta packed in for the North American, British, French, Italian, and German editions.

This'll get the popular game (available in 2002 for PC and the PS2 (other than for Europe) in the hands of Xbox 360 gamers months before the game is available.

I'm not sure what issue this will be in, but I expect it'll be in the February issue. I've received the subscription versions of the Holiday and January issues, and the pack-in wasn't included. Oh, and if subscribers are shorted for the pack-in, I'm going to be grumpy (don't worry; you'll hear about it) ...

Xbox 360: The Official Xbox Magazine is the new iteration of The Official Xbox Magazine (OXM). I'm abbreviating the new version as "X360OM". So there.

3. Bioware/Pandemic stock float?

Former Electronic Arts president (and now Elevation Partners board member and deal brokerer) John Riccitiello is now the CEO of the new BioWare/Pandemic Studios, and he told the New York Times he wants the "superdeveloper" to be a publicly traded company. Pandemic president Josh Resnick seems to agree, citing a parallel to Pixar's public success.
I'm no expert, but it seems the new company should be careful going down that route. They're not bringing in the revenue of a Pixar, aren't as diversified in media or IP offerings, and if one of the stated reasons of the merger and cash infusion is to be able to take "the time to nurture top talent, then letting that talent work its magic" -- being accountable to the Street can really nix this goal.

4. You can't stop Massive in-game advertising

Massive Incorporated, the technology behind in-game advertising, is heading hot into the holidays.

After Massive/Activision results were released for previous efforts, showing a growth in ad responsiveness, and a win-win for publishers and gamers, Spark Unlimited (ex-original-Call of Duty staffers) surprisingly signed on for future titles. Now comes the anouncement that THQ has singed a long-term deal to for ads for "several to-be-disclosed AAA titles".

Hey, if it's clever placement that doesn't get in the way of the game (like the well-done Sony Ericsson Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory), I'm fine with it. So the sucky in-your-face Samsung placement in Perfect Dark Zero is not what I'm OK with.

5. Xbox bosses pro(de)moted?

In a leaked internal memo, Microsoft said it's restructuring its Entertainment & Devices group into 4 divisions (including the Entertainment Business division, which will handle music, TV and video; and the Interactive Entertainment Division, which will cover Xbox and PC games).

Previous Xbox boss Robbie Bach will be driving the Entertainment and Devices division in broader terms, focusing on long-term strategies and partner relationships.

Bryan Lee heads up the new the Entertainment Business division.

Peter Moore, corporate VP of worldwide marketing for Xbox, has the new Interactive Entertainment unit, and will oversee the Xbox business and the Games for Windows segment (and contribute to the gaming portion of Windows Vista efforts).

VP J Allard will lead the new Experiences and Design for Gaming and Entertainment Group. This one is interesting to me, because Allard's role becomes broader, and he owns the road map and vision for products and user experiences across all four units of the entertainment group. In some ways, this could be seen as almost a demotion -- taking away some of the direct accountability he had for, say, the Xbox 360 launch. But maybe not.

6. Oh no he di'n't! ("HD Era"/"Tru HD" smack talk)

Rumor rumblings make it sound like developers are struggling to get the HD content for the Xbox 360 on single- or dual-layer DVD discs supported by the console, and one developer is allegedly looking at a 6-disc distribution of an upcoming title.

And though Xbox execs are touting the release fo the 360 as the start of the "HD Era", president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison says the Xbox 360 "doesn’t have true HD functionality" because it doesn't support 1080p (1080-progressive).

Forget that the Xbox 360 supports 720p and 1080i (interlaced) -- though it likely cheats on this latter resolution -- and both are considered High-Definition. Forget that Sony invented the term "Tru HD". Forget that nothing is broadcast (or on the horizon to broadcast) in 1080p. Forget that though Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi said the PS3 will run at 120fps, but 1080p tops out at 30fps (I think 1080i may hit 50fps). Forget that Sony promised us "lifelike game characters", via the PS2 "Emotion Engine".

All you need to remember is Sony's (via Harrison's) statement: "The HD era really only starts when we are on the market."

Hey, it was enough to kill the Sega Dreamcast.

And I bet Sony will actually come out with a compelling console launch title.